


Please be aware of typical CPU & memory usage before enabling these features. Wireshark on IOS XE is also a method of capturing and displaying traffic in IOS XE, however, Wireshark is much more flexible when it comes to working with the captured traffic and displaying the captured traffic on the CLI.įinally, both Wireshark and Embedded Packet Capture can be CPU and Memory intensive processes. In summary, Embedded Packet Capture is a method of capturing and displaying traffic in IOS XE. This article is to help network administrators differentiate between Wireshark and EPC and to show examples of both methods. Wireshark requires a DNA Advantage term license and EPC requires a Network Essentials perpetual license, this has created confusion. Some monitor capture commands in IOS XE use Wireshark others use EPC. SPAN is another way of redirecting traffic to a monitoring destination but has no local display, this article is NOT about SPAN. Wireshark can also be an application that runs as a container on C9300 and C9400, this article is NOT about that.

Wireshark is an application that runs natively inside of IOS XE on the Cat 9k. To check if promiscuous mode is enabled, click Capture > Options and verify the “Enable promiscuous mode on all interfaces” checkbox is activated at the bottom of this window.Wireshark and Embedded Packet Capture (EPC) are methods of capturing and or displaying captured traffic on an IOS XE box.

If you have promiscuous mode enabled-it’s enabled by default-you’ll also see all the other packets on the network instead of only packets addressed to your network adapter. Wireshark captures each packet sent to or from your system. You can configure advanced features by clicking Capture > Options, but this isn’t necessary for now.Īs soon as you click the interface’s name, you’ll see the packets start to appear in real time. For example, if you want to capture traffic on your wireless network, click your wireless interface. Capturing PacketsĪfter downloading and installing Wireshark, you can launch it and double-click the name of a network interface under Capture to start capturing packets on that interface. Don’t use this tool at work unless you have permission. Just a quick warning: Many organizations don’t allow Wireshark and similar tools on their networks.
